*drool* *drool*

I went to McDonald's today and discovered that they have this new temptation dessert, the McDonald's Cinnamon Melts.

obviously, the actual product doesn't look as perfect as this one...

On a whim, I tried it... and O.M.G... O.M.G...

are you from heaaaaaven? *drool* *drool* nom nom nom

I'll be having a good dream tonight... one that includes melted sugar and cinnamon on a soft and warm bun (and hopefully, no scary, red-haired clowns...)

nom nom nom...

Sinful Sunday Meal : McDo Japanese-Style!

It's been a long time since I bought anything from McDonald's. Blame "Supersize Me" for that... hehehe...

But this morning I saw a TV ad for the new McDonald's Filet-o-Fish with Wasabi, plus Wasabi-flavored McShaker fries... OMG!!! Did they just say the magic word??? WASABI!!!

Given that I have only one meal of the week wherein I can eat anything I want without counting the amount of calories and fat, I decided to give-in to temptation and waste my "sinful sunday meal" card on McDonald's:

The tasty evil that is the Wasabi Filet-O-Fish meal w/ Wasabi McShaker fries

I LOVE WASABI! (me, and probably 5 other people around the world. Oh, yeah, and the Japanese too!) Probably the only reason why I love sushi so much is because I have a reason to eat Wasabi! (Crazy eh?)

Wasabi is the "kind of spicy" that doesn't stay in your mouth like chili. Once you put it in your mouth, it explodes! You feel the sensation all the way to your nostrils, and it may leave you with a few tears once in a while. But after that, it's as if nothing happened?!

So, like a little forgetful goldfish, you go ahead and have a taste again, thinking... "Hmmn... Have I tasted the Wasabi yet?" Then BAM! "Oh, THAT's the WASABI!" And then the cycle goes on and on until you run-out of Wasabi or your brain evaporates out of your ears. (whichever comes first!)

Yes, Wasabi... It's for the sadomasochist goldfish in each and every one of us...

Tabemasho!!!

Sushi anyone?

Last night, I decided to make something different. Since I am a big fan of Japanese food, I decided to make sushi for myself. :)

Here are my ingredients:

1. Nori

2. Fillings: Cucumber, Scrambled Egg(w/ soy milk), Mock Crab

3. Sushi Rice. You may get the info on how to make it in youtube. (what else can't you find in youtube??)

After painstakingly wrapping the sushi, here's the final product:

Tabemasho!

Take that Ronald McD!

Still basking in my glorious victory over last night's dinner experiment, I decided to cook lunch today. Since I was craving for Egg McMuffins the other day, I opted to make my own version.

So I bought a pancake mix, low fat butter(oxymoron?), and some eggs.

I won't go into details on how pancakes are cooked... Even little kids know how to do that. And I'm betting some kids are actually better at it than me!

So after messing up the kitchen, this is the end product:

The one on the left is not a pancake, it's actually a sunny-side-up egg... Hey! Don't judge my egg!!! I flipped the egg several times to make sure the yolk was cooked and not the liquidy-type, so that I'd be able to get that Egg-McMuffin effect.

The final product:

My potty-mouthed pancake w/egg VS. Ronald McDonald's Egg McMuffin

How did it taste like? Hmmnn... Ano nga ulit number ng McDonald's delivery???

Success!!!

After several attempts at cooking, I have finally concocted something I would really eat in real life!!! :)

First, let me show you my previous attempts:

Vege-meat Mechado. Thank God I was really hungry that lunch time, otherwise, I would not have eaten this.

Mixed vege with scrambled eggs and low-calorie crackers. I undercooked the vegetables... I now know what herbivore animals feel when eating... and it's NOT good.

So basically lunchtime for me was self-inflicted torture. I'm actually beginning to think I subconsciously hate myself. Why me, why are you doing this to me???

But last night, I decided to cook dinner. Not wanting to eat rice, I decided to experiment with noodles. So scrapping our fridge for anything that can go together in a dish, this is what I got:

Ingredients:
1 pc vege-meat sausage, sliced
2 pc vege-meat squid, sliced
1 tablespoon vegetarian tom yum paste
2 baby carrots, sliced
shredded chinese cabbage
minced onion
minced garlic
bean vermicelli noodles
1/2 cup water

Instructions:
Soak the noodles in water for 10minutes. Stir-fry the garlic, onion, carrots. Add the vegemeat. Once the onion is nearly translucent, add the noodles. Stir and constantly add the water to make sure the noodles does not stick to the pan. Add the chinese cabbage. Add the tom yum paste. Stir until the paste is fully integrated in the mix. If everything seems to look like they're cooked (my only basis... hehehe..) stop the stove.

And walla... this is what I got:

It may not look good in this picture, but damn! It was AWESOME!!!

Sorry for doubting you, me. I now know how much you love me, me.

Dinner was f*ing awesome!!!

gangway! gangway! mad woman in the kitchen!

Because I firmly believe that a large part of my unhealthy state is caused by the fact that I eat a lot of crap, I attempted to make my own food (not in a photosynthesis kind of way...)

This marks my farewell to the oily and MSG-laden food in our local hawker centers.

--------

Since I wake-up pretty late, I've decided it's best to prepare my meals the night before I'm supposed to eat them.

So here's tomorrow's menu:

Tomorrow's breakfast (168 Cal):
2 slices high fiber white bread= 137Cal
Kaya spread (less than 10g) = 31Cal



I'll also have the same thing for snacks in the afternoon (168 Cal):


And for lunch(200Cal)...
may I present my first kitchen masterpiece in SG:
It's basically left over rice, all the decent vege's we have left-over in the fridge, and some vegetarian stuff I picked up in the grocery the other day.

1/2 cup of steamed rice = 103Cal
1/4 of a small onion = 4Cal
1/2 of a small tomato = 4Cal
4 stripes of bell pepper = 2Cal
1 vegetarian sausage = 59Cal
50 grams tofu = 28Cal

Cook the tofu and vegetarian sausage. Use a non-stick pan and use very little cooking oil.
Once cooked, add in the vege's and stir-fry of about less than 5 minutes. Use low heat.

After that, what we have is:


the abomination that is called tomorrow's lunch. Well, I have to start somewhere, right? Hopefully I'll get better with this cooking thing.


Total Calories before dinner:
Breakfast = 168
Lunch = 200
Snacks = 168
TOTAL = 536Cal


Dinner is still up in the air, but it will probably include some fruits...
good luck to me then!

Bon appetit!

what i've learned after a few days...

after almost 2 weeks here in SG, I've learned a couple of things. Some of them were knowledge passed on to me by my brother and his gf, who have been here for more than 5 years, and some I have learned (both fortunately and unfortunately) first-hand.

1. Ang lakas ng sipa, men!
kala ko nung una, joke lang nung sinabi nila na masusuka ako 'pag naamoy ko sila. Then I got to experience the "aroma" myself... wow p're! di mo na kelangan ng kape... magigising ka sa amoy nila... Most pinoys call them "anaps". Naawa tuloy ako sa isang kong ex-officemate na dun pupunta sa motherland nila... Grabe talaga, di kompleto ang MRT ride pag di mo sila naamoy... Ang bad ko no? pro promise, kung ikaw ang nasa kinalalagyan ko, you'd understand.

2. Kaya nga food store eh, kase "food" lang...
Hiwalay sa kanila ang bilihan ng food, at bilihan ng drinks. I find this really weird. Nung 2nd day ko dito, kumain kame sa isang hawker malapit sa robinson road. nung 4th day ko, nag-lunch ako sa kopitiam sa may mall malapit sa amin. in both of those places (actually, all hawkers, koptiams, etc...) hiwalay ang bilihan ng food at bilihan ng inumin. may separate stall na drinks lang talga ang binibenta, so pupunta ka dun after mo bumili ng food, hiwalay din ang bilihan ng dessert... medyo hassle di ba?

3. Tissue na lang, pahirapan pa...
kung sa Japan, parang umuulan ng tissue dahil sa dami ng mga "giveaways", dito naman, taghirap sa tissue. hindi sya binibigay by default. kung meron mang bibigay syo, say for example, sa isang resto, for sure daw may charge yun. sa kainan lang yan ah, pro sa mga public toilets, meron namang tissue.

4. gentleman? ano yun?
kung ikaw daw ay isang binatang pilipino na nakaupos sa mrt/lrt/bus, wag na wag kang mag-o-offer ng seat sa isang babae, dahil ma-o-offend lang sya. Yung gesture daw kse na yun ay ginagawa lang para sa mga matatanda at disabled. so parang sinasabi mo na din na matanda na sya... (ei, auntie, want to seat?)

5. sungit!
pansin ko lang, karamihan ng mga locals medyo may pagkamasungit by philippine standards. kse tyong mga pinoy, pag may makabangga sa paglalakad accidentally, normal sa atin na mag-sorry or something like that. dito, di yun uso. di rin uso dito ang pag-ngiti, unlike sa atin na nagkatabi lang sa jeep, nagchi-chikahan na bago bumaba. dito... deadma!

6. biglang dadami ang mga kamag-anak mo dito
dito daw, ang usual na tawag sa mga nakatatanda ay "uncle" at "auntie". parang version nila ng "manong" at "manang" natin sa pinas. so pag kelangan mong kausapin si manong taxi driver, call him uncle.

7. ambilis ng escalator!
ibang level ang bilis ng escalators nila sa mga mrt/lrt stations... promise, minsan nakakatakot! unlike sa pinas na minsan may "humps" pa (refer to mrt ayala station, leftside, going down), dito OA sa bilis. ginawa daw ganun kse lagi daw nagmamadali ang mga tao. sa mrt/lrt stations lang naman. yung sa mga malls, so far, wala naman akong nakitang "express escalators"

8. pedestrian lanes do work!!!
i love it! motorists here respect the pedestrian late. ang galing talaga. sa pinas kse sanay tyo na yung tatawid pa yung magbibigay sa motorista. dito sobrang opposite. kahit malayo ka pa sa pedestrian lane, at yung kotse malapit na, hihinto talaga sya at hihintayin ka. kaka-pressure tuloy minsan na tumawid agad... hehehe... consistent ito ah, mapa-bus or kotse, hihinto talaga... so nice!

9. what money? don't you have a card?
for a country that has a lot of money, they sure don't like to touch it. you can use an ez-link card if you want to ride the lrt/mrt/bus. the fare is higher if you're gonna pay in cash. pwede rin ang ez-link sa mcdo. meron ding cards ang mga food courts dito. may 10% discount pag card ang gamit. kung taxi naman, pwede kang gumamit ng credit card or debit card. (wala atang discount) for every thing else, believe it or not, even small and cheap-looking stalls also accept credit / debit cards. Bills, concert tickets, mail stamps, and fund transfers can be done in several kiosks, charging it to you bank account. syempre meron pa ding old fashioned hand-the-cash-over-to-the-lady-in-the-counter, but the government is really making an effort to make transactions cashless.

10. Reload == top-up
Top-up ang term na gamit nila sa "reload". Top-up your ez-link, kopitiam card, and of course, you prepaid phone, via counters, kiosks or atms.

11. Library == video rental shop
di lang books ang pwedeng hiramin sa library, pwede ding audio/movie cds, dvds, pati mga comics at magazine. pro di lahat ng library ay mapalad. the one here in sengkang only has books, magazines and comics... booooo...

12. di ka rin galit sa plastic eh noh?
grabe talga ang mga grocery baggers dito. kulang na lang i-plastic bawat item na binili mo. dapat mag-seminar sila sa pilipinas. galing mga mga baggers natin e, daming items napagkakasya efficiently sa isang bag.

13. di uso ang libre dito...
bumili ako ng sushi nung isang araw, hihingi dapat ako ng wasabi, aba! may bayad?!!! teka, di ba yun included na dapat since bumili naman ako ng sushi??? at itong malupit... may "sushi sauce allocation table" sila. so kung 1-5 sushi ang binili mo, meron ang 1 sachet ng sushi sause, pag 6-10, 2 sachet and so on... huuuuwaaat??? sa pinas hinihingi lang ito sa yoshinoya ah?!!!

14. sale kung sale!
mataas ang bilihin dito... and singaporeans are known to be quite stingy. tipid kung tipid talga, since mahal nga ang bilihin. pro wag ka, pag sinabing sale, aba! bagsak presyo talga. branded sneakers that usually costs around 20SGD, would sell at 10SGD, 42 inch plasma tv, priced regularly at around 5,000SGD would cost around half during a sale. insane diba???